SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Kieran Lovegrove throws a baseball for a living, and he’s quite good at it. His fastball hums in at 96 mph.

But it’s his mind that truly moves at warp speed.

A scheduled 15-minute interview with Lovegrove, a 24-year-old non-roster invitee in Giants camp this spring, turned into a wide-ranging and fast-moving conversation that spanned more than an hour in the home dugout at Scottsdale Stadium last week.

Trying to become the first African-born pitcher to reach the major leagues? Taking the mound in the All-Star Futures game last summer? Using analytics to inform his pitch mix? That was the entry-level stuff.

The conversation took so many turns that we ended up touching upon materials science, Japanese Rockabilly, the logistical challenges of starting a philanthropic foundation as a 15-year-old, and the latest venture he is developing: a TV show in which major league stars would travel to African countries to teach the...